Legal

Legal

Terms of Use

The Diocese of Oakland provides this Website for information, inspiration, education, participation in Church life, and spiritual growth.

It is important to realize that your use of this site is not solely for your own private enrichment. Parts of this site may include interaction with other people. The nature of the Web and the Church require courteous and thoughtful discourse.

By visiting this site, users agree to adhere to certain standards of interactive conduct. These standards apply to use of interactive features including but not limited to discussion groups, chat, e-cards, calendar listings, news, blog comments, and use of e-mail to addresses contained in this site.

What are the Standards of Discourse?

In any interaction with this site, visitors agree to refrain from:

using language that can be generally construed as threatening, offensive, derogatory, judgmental, demeaning, or humiliating

“flaming,” or “spamming,” or any practice that floods an individual with unwanted and/or derogatory communication

linking to offensive sites, including those that are pornographic, racist or which advocate violence or prejudice against any group or individuals

disclosing private information about others

attacking or undermining another’s reputation or good name, that is, calumny, libel, or slander

use of copyrighted material from this site without permission

Violations of any of these will result in the materials being removed, access to the site may be restricted, and if applicable, appropriate law officials will be contacted.

What are Violations of Gospel Standards?

The Diocesan site exists solely to advance the Good News of Jesus Christ and the building of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the Diocese retains the right to remove communications and/or block interactive participation from anyone whom it decides has objectively violated Gospel standards of conduct, sensus fidei or consensus fidelium, whether or not such violations are enumerated above, without intended detriment to that individual’s intent, faith or reputation.

What steps will be taken when these standards are violated?

Anyone deemed to have violated any of the above standards, or any other individual instance considered related to any of the above standards, may be blocked from certain interactive features of this site and/or have his or her messages removed. If any violation of the above standards represents, indicates or suggests an intent or threat to break the law, the violator’s information, including ISP and IP address, will be provided to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. Although they may not use site features, hackers who interfere with the operation of the Diocesan site or obtain information from the site without permission or spammers who harvest e-mail addresses from this site are also subject to prosecution.

What is the recourse when a decision is made?

Those deemed to be in violation of the Terms of Use by the Diocese, its employees, volunteers, agents or contractors, are not permitted to dispute decisions regarding any limitations of their use of this Web site. They may, however, ask to be reinstated after a period of three months.

Your Consent

By using our Web site, you consent to the Terms of Use. Should we ever change these terms, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of the responsibilities of those who use this site

Privacy Policy

The Diocese of Oakland understands that you care how information about you is used and shared. We appreciate your trust. We will protect your privacy and use any information submitted through our Web site carefully and sensibly.

We respect each site visitor's right to personal privacy. To that end, we collect and use information throughout our Website only as disclosed in this Privacy Policy. This statement applies solely to information collected on this Website.

How does the Diocese protect personal information?

When you make a contribution or purchase, we offer the use of a secure server. If off-site services are being offered, we adhere to the technical requirements of the off-site service regarding encryption. Furthermore, all of the data we collect is protected against unauthorized access. This means that authorized Archdiocesan staff or bank employees/systems will be able to read your information. Your credit card information is protected and secure when used on our site. We are not responsible for information provided to third-party services, even if linked-to from this site.

Our Web server may automatically recognize information regarding your IP address, domain, or e-mail address. This information is not normally viewed individually, but is used to automatically compile statistics through a software program. The statistical information we collect may be used to:

improve the content and organization of our Web site

create new features and/or content on our site to meet the patterns of use indicated by statistical analysis

provide general statistical information, e.g. the number of visitors to the site and most-viewed pages

Some features of this Web may site use cookies, a file deposited on your computer to record information for your next visit. This information is recorded if you choose to alter your page viewing preference (for example, to choose large type), so that when you return your viewing preferences are intact, or if you choose to keep log-in information on your computer. At any time you can clear these cookies in your browser’s preferences (or tools) menu. The Diocese does not use cookies for any other purpose than to enhance your personal visit convenience.

Will the Diocese disclose private information it collects to outside parties?

If you supply the Diocese with your e-mail address you may receive periodic e-mail messages from us providing information and updates about the Church, our Web site, or notice of upcoming events and activities. In each case when you submit a form, you will be given the option not to receive such communication. If you mistakenly receive any communication you do not want to receive, please respond to the e-mail with a request to be removed from the list, and your request will be promptly fulfilled. We do not make the e-mail addresses of those who access our site available to other organizations nor do we sell this information to anyone.

If you supply the Diocese with your postal address on-line you may receive periodic postal mailings from us providing information on the Church, our Web site, or upcoming events or activities. If you do not wish to receive such postal mailings, please let us know by returning the mail to the originating department as “refused” and your name will be removed from the mailing list.

Persons who supply the Diocese with telephone numbers on-line may be assured that his or her telephone number will be kept in confidence by the Diocese and used only for the purpose for which you supplied it. Phone numbers will not shared with other organizations.

What is the difference between private and personal information?

Personal information is considered to be names, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, date of birth and any demographic or preferential information you may disclose for the purposes of on-line interaction, identification, or participation in any Diocesan program or event.

Private information is considered to be financial information such as credit card or bank account information, social security numbers, health information, immigration status, communication indicated as confidential, or any information that is not routinely collected as a condition of participation in Diocesan programs or events.

The Diocese assigns a higher priority and a greater level of protection to private information over personal information.

What is not covered by this privacy policy?

All clergy (deacons, priests, and bishops), mental health professionals, educators and many employees of the Diocese or Church institutions are legally-mandated reporters of suspected sexual abuse, child abuse, child neglect, and elder abuse. California law requires such mandated reporters to report possible instances of these offenses to law enforcement agencies. Any disclosures of this nature are not covered by this privacy policy.

Requests by law enforcement agencies for information about site users deemed by Diocesan legal counsel to be legitimate and not in violation of constitutional principles will be supplied to law enforcement agencies.

Any user of this site indicating, threatening, admitting to, or representing an act in violation of the law on this site or through an e-mail link contained on this site will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

What if I have a problem?

If at any time you believe the Diocese has violated this privacy policy, we encourage you to contact us at webmaster@oakdiocese.org so that we may quickly resolve the issue.

Your Consent

By using our Web site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by the Diocese. Should we ever change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.